Respecting fandoms and fanfiction by Kelly Miller & Giveaway

Guest Post: Respecting fandoms and fanfiction

by Kelly Miller

Thank you for joining Riptide on our 4th Anniversary blog tour! We are excited to bring you new guest posts from our authors and behind the scenes insights from Riptide. The full tour schedule can be found at http://riptidepublishing.com/events/tours/riptides-4th-anniversary-celebration. Don’t miss the limited time discounts and Free Books for a Year giveaway at the end of this post!

Please welcome Kelly Miller to the tour.

Hello! First, introductions. My name is Kelly Miller and I work in Riptide’s marketing department. I came to Riptide in a rather unique way. I met publisher Rachel Haimowitz through my organizational efforts with a fan based convention called DestielCon. (For those of you not aware, “destiel” is the “ship” name for Dean Winchester and Castiel from Supernatural. Though I’m guessing most of you are aware.) She was impressed with me, I was impressed with Riptide, and, well, here I am. And I couldn’t be more grateful. It’s not every day you can leverage your fandom involvement to get a job.

Of course, Riptide is not your run-of-the-mill business. Where others look at fandom life and scoff, Riptide sees past the stigmas, and even takes inspiration from fandom culture. While some may look at fanfiction and deride its validity and importance, Riptide is 1) reading it for fun because, I swear, we’re all in one fandom or another, and 2) keeping an eye out for an author that wows us. No, we don’t publish fanfiction, but a skillful writer is a skillful writer, and Riptide acknowledges that. Watching fandom corners for new authors is kind of like record labels going to karaoke bars looking for new singers. Makes a certain amount of sense, no? We certainly think so.

But Riptide does more than just respect good writing when we see it. One of the things I love most about Riptide’s website is the use of a tagging system for the books. It functions just like the tags on AO3. In the mood for a story with a hot professor and some BDSM? Select them in the search fields and bam, time to check out The Professor’s Rule by Heidi Belleau and Amelia C. Gormley. (Conveniently on sale this week!) It’s so much more efficient and rewarding than wading through descriptions on Amazon or book jackets at Barnes and Noble and just hoping the book you pick has the kinks and tropes you love.

Truly, the LGBTQ publishing industry is not so far removed from fandom life as I once thought it to be. I share a NSFW (not safe for work) fanart on my personal blog, and then switch over to my Riptide email and discuss BDSM imagery for a book cover. I log in to Riptide’s tumblr and our dashboard is filled with Hannibal, Supernatural, Orange is the New Black, Sense8, and Teen Wolf. What’s this sterek gif set and what blog am I signed into again?

(For those of you not aware, “sterek” is the “ship” name for Stiles Stilinski and Derek Hale from Teen Wolf. Though, again, I’m guessing most of you are aware.)

Finding a company that respects fandoms and fanfiction has been such a gift.

And no, I’m not just saying that because they made me. 😉

Giveaway

Anniversary Sale

Many great collections are being sold in a special discounted bundle by Riptide this week only. Check out the sale on this series and other bundles at http://www.riptidepublishing.com/anniversary-sale

Giveaway

To celebrate our anniversary, Riptide Publishing is giving away free books for a year! Your first comment at each blog stop on the Anniversary Tour will count as an entry and give you a chance to win this great prize. Giveaway ends at midnight, October 31, 2015, and is not restricted to US entries.

About the Author:

Kelly loves books and once hoped to share that love with youthful minds with her BS in English education. After successfully organizing a fan based convention and managing the social media accounts for another, she decided her skill sets would be better served in marketing rather than teaching.

She first came to LGBTQ literature through fanfiction when she was a teenager. Kelly now writes in her spare time, and reads more LGBTQ fiction than is proper to discuss in polite company.

Whilst I am not a big fanfic reader (not into any of the programmes enough I think!) I have read some stories and as you say – a good writer is a good writer.
I also hadn’t realised about the search tags so shall be trying out next time I am on the site

i love fanfiction. and honestly there are sooo many amazing fanfics out there that are well written and captivating. Also fandoms are great and well my experience with them: they’ve been supportive and welcoming. so many amazing artists and writers in fandom seriously 🙂

Fandoms are a powerful thing. Even though I’m glad that the guys in my hockey slash OTP have found happiness, a big part of me is still embarrassed to be stunned that they married women instead of each other…

I enjoyed the post I have heard of Fanfiction but I have never read it I have also heard that some authors started out writing fanfiction so it’s great that Riptide is “a company that respects fandoms and fanfiction”

As both an aspiring author and avid fanfiction writer, I gotta say I love Riptide’s respect towards fanfiction. So many people turn up their nose at fanfiction because it doesn’t make money. As though somehow that dictates quality. I’ve read fanfics that I enjoyed much more than some published works I’ve read. And it’s all given for free. Writing is hard work. Blood, sweat, and tears type stuff. I’ve spent so many hours on fanfiction where I should have/could have spent it on writing my novel. Yet I have a whole following of people who love what I do. To me, that’s a success.

I don’t read a lot of fanfic because I don’t follow the shows (I know fanfic is written for books too) that it’s written about. But I realize there are some really talented authors who get/got their start in fanfic & I think it’s great that Riptide recognizes that & supports it as well.

Haus Butterfly Crest xD

FTC Disclosure

The owner(s) of this blog is(are) often offered free copies to provide opinion on books. All such reviews are labeled “RBR” [review by request], i.e. the review has been requested by the author/publisher etc directly or indirectly (through NetGalley, Edelweiss, book tour) and I have been provided with a free review copy, marked as Source: review copy.
All reviews are entirely the reviewer's opinion, are not influenced by the review copy offered and no monetary compensations are accepted for them!